My Fat Chihuahua

[PetProtector]

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I have a chihuahua, Snickers, he is about 5 years old, I've had him since he was a baby. He is so overweight. He is probably the fattest chihuahua you all have seen. I have 3 other dogs too. Snickers seems to be the little piggy of the gang, he is always the gorper who eats everyones food if they let him. With having 4 dogs it is tough to try and limit how much Snickers eats because I cannot put the food dishes up and out of his reach because it would not be fair to the others. I am thinking maybe I need to start walking him more? I do have a fenced in yard and he does go out and get SOME exercise, but apparently it is not enough. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

[Hula]

I also have 4 dogs and none of them are fat .

Feed him separately , lift the food when they have all finished .

Exercise him more .

No more fat dog - simple .

 

[banana]

Oh dear he is a bit paunchy isn't he??? lol

I think Hula may be right, lifting the food dishes and feeding him separately!

 

[eingana]

Lots of vets and animal experts will tell you that cats don't overeat when they have access to more food, but when I've had a group of cats together and all having access to the same food some of my cats quite clearly have had eating as a hobby, resulting in 4 thin cats and one really portly one so as far as I'm concerned it is my job to manage the food situation.

If you allow them access to their food bowls for 10 minutes twice a day then that will get the others eating what they really want a bit faster and will also allow you to pick the bowls up to stop Snickers from being able to snack from other dogs' bowls.

Boredom also plays a part along with lack of exercise, so alongside dropping his intake by limiting his access to food, half an hour of a good game a day to get him running around the garden and half an hour of walk out in the big wide world with all of the smells, sights and excitement that this entails should get him burning a whole load more calories.

You could change his food to a lower calorie version which will fill him up without the same calories, and this should mean that he's not constantly hungry and hassling you for food. Whatever food you offer, knowing his weight and weighing his food portions based on his actual weight (not his target weight) is important to just cut out the extra few that he doesn't need as he starts to lose weight. Making sure that the calorific content of any of his treats is taken from his overall daily allowance is also important, so using his normal food as treats is recommended as it's easy to work out how much he should have.

Please remember that for him to lose weight safely he should be losing it slowly and gently, so it's important that you start off both with his current weight and his target weight, but that you aim to lose that weight spread over 6 months or longer, which with a small dog will mean that he may be losing 1-200g a week, but no more. Whilst being overweight is unhealthy, sudden weightloss is even more unhealthy and can lead to organ failure, so what you want to do is to gently tip the balance of his weight from gaining to losing, but only very gently.

So if he takes in 50 calories a day less and burns another 50 by running about then that's probably all he needs to lose the weight over time. Good luck

 

[PetProtector]

Awesome, thank you Eingana for the great information!!

 

[lurcherman]

slowly slowly catch the monkey, my lurcher a year back put 9 pound on so i didnt want that so a small handfull was cut from his daily rations and 9 month later back down to his weight that i wanted, the exersize is a no brainer but watch you dont overdo it early doors, kind regards.

 

[whippetsrus]

Feed individually, cut the treats and good quality exercise.